Monday, 9 June 2014

Legendary Guardians of the Covenant

In a Chapter of but a thousand warriors, each and every Space Marine is a legend on its own.

Having endured a gruelling training, surviving to become a Battle-Brother and carving his legend through the annals of the Imperium itself, each and every member of the Chapter is a hero beyond belief. Though even in this brotherhood of heroes, there are a few warriors that truly stand out. They are warriors whose prowess of battle and keen intellect are second to none. They and they alone have achieved singular greatness and are the purest exemplars of their Chapter.

They are the epitome of what each Battle-Brother strives to become.

They are legendary.

Xandor Solaceon - Supreme Grand Master of the Guardians of the Covenant, The Lord Guardian, the Crimson Angel, Satrap of Sub-Sector Halcyon
Even for an Astartes, Xandor Solaceon is ancient. Taking the mantle of Chapter Master almost four hundred years ago, the story of Solaceon is one of many legends. Solaceon, the current Supreme Grand Master is believed to be over eight centuries old. His ornate suit of artificer armour is as much battle plate as it is life support. His armour sports an ancient single-thruster winged jump pack and he wields a large power falx.
He is a fearsome warrior, wise and pious. Many Mortikans revere him as a Saint, entire generations growing up and dying, taking comfort in the fact that Solaceon is always there as an avatar of the divinity of the God-Emperor.
To the Battle-Brothers of the Chapter, Solaceon is the ultimate authority. An individual with the wisdom of ages. It was Solaceon that single-handedly slew the Daemon Prince N'zar, he also turned the tide in the Lelith Incursion and successfully led the 77th Halo Crusade, which led to the creation of a new sub-sector at the edge of known space.
By ancient tradition, the position of Chapter Master will be vacant only after the passing of the current one. Due to his extreme age, the Lord Guardian shares the burden of leading the Chapter with his fellow Grand Masters and spends a lot of time in the Spire in study and meditation. However, when the Lord Guardian enters the battlefield, the tide of battle will surely turn.

Galax Trayarch - The Knight Eternal, Grand Master of the Convenio Mentoris, High Suzerain of Mortikah VII
Clad in a suit of baroque terminator armour, Grand Master Trayarch is a giant, even amongst his brother Astartes. As Grand Master of the Convenio Mentorus, he is the Master of the Knights of the Covenant, and thusly named the Knight Eternal. Trayarch has held his post for nearly two centuries, and can always be found at the forefront of any large theatre of war. He typically wields Deicide, an archaeotech thunder hammer, with origins in the Great Crusade, which he wields with devastating effect.
The Knight Eternal earned praise from the wider Imperium, when he boarded a Hive Ship of a splinter fleet of Hive Gorgon, slaying the Norn Queen after a battle that is said to have taken over a day to complete. Of the thirty elite Knights and Mentor Terminators that boarded the Tyranid vessel, only five survived. Those survivors currently form Trayarch's command squad, named The Five.
Through great sacrifice, the Guardians of the Covenant eventually turned the tide of the war halted the progress of Hive Fleet Gorgon significantly.

Parcival Drachyon -The Stygian Prince, Grand Master of the Convenio Venator, Praeses of the Black Knights
The illustrious career of the Grand Master of the second company is one steeped in glory. Parcival Drachyon currently leads the Black Knights, an elite faction within the fabled Convenio Venator, the gathering of hunters. Drachyon, like his knights, wears jet black armour. This, together with his noble Mortikan heritage, earned him the title, the Stygian Prince.Drachyon rides into battle a relic without equal: Mercurion, an ancient Scimitar-pattern Jetbike, a precious heirloom from the days of the Great Crusade.
The Stygian Prince is a veteran of centuries and his wisdom knows few equals, despite this, he is considered hot-headed by some, hungry for glory by others. Drachyon is the absolute master of rapid attacks, often hitting the enemy with surgical strikes, breaking the foe's will even before the main assault. The Praeses of the Black Knights rose to fame with the wider Imperium after fighting alongside the Ultramarines Third Company in a gruelling campaign against the corrupted hive world of Virago, where they clashed with their traitorous brethren of The Purge, a Chaos Space Marine warband.

Luthenas Vairez - Master of the Convenio Armatura, Master of the Forge, Lord of Mechanisms, Keeper of the Last Guardian.
The Master of the Forge, Luthenas Vairez, has spent decades on Mars and Ryza, learning the secrets of the Adeptus Mechanicus. He came back after almost a century of absence, the annals of the Spire registered Vairez as lost to the warp. The stalwart Techmarine was immediately promoted to Master of the Forge and he went to work on The Last Guardian, an immobilised but nonetheless fearsome Fellblade super-heavy tank, which he made battle-ready after a decade of intensive work. Vairez is legendary within the Chapter, both as a mechanic and an innovator. His unorthodox armour sports an arcane conversion beamer and he himself wields a thunder hammer, often with a storm shield.

Kaesar Lucius - Former Grand Master of the Chapter, The Doomed Crusader
The story of Kaesar Lucius was a grand one, albeit with one that ends in misfortune. He was a fearsome warrior. A Battle-Brother of great wisdom, and unmatched skills in battle. Lucius was an active crusader, and claimed a lot of uncharted space for the Imperium. Over two millennia ago, Kaesar Lucius stood on the eve of embarking on the biggest crusade into the uncharted territory of the Halo Zone. The crusade would later be christened as the Armeneus Crusade. Hundreds of thousands of troops, Spireguard, tanks and a full five companies of Guardians of the Covenant would travel with a fleet of such magnitude, that it was said the stars themselves were blotted out.
All would prove for nought. The crusade left, and would never be heard of again. The final fate of Kaesar Lucius and many Battle-Brothers and brothers in arms would be left to question for eternity.

Leicas Huriel - Legendary founder of the Chapter

Leicas Huriel was a Dark Angel and the arch-father of the Chapter. Not much is known about Huriel. He was a member of the Inner Circle and was known as an oddity within the Dark Angels Chapter, in that he though the scholarly arts were equal to the martial arts. Despite this, Huriel was considered a font of wisdom. When the High Lords of Terra created a new Chapter from Dark Angels' Gene-Seed, it was only natural that Leicas Huriel would be the one to lead it.

The Chief Librarian of the Guardians of the Covenant stands in stark contrast with Brother-Librarians from other Chapters. The Librarius Dominus of the Sons of Mortikah is not a keeper of secrets, but a giver of knowledge. Even within a brotherhood of warrior-scholars, Lenko Hollix-Varnus takes the moniker to a new level. He a scholar in extremis, when not at war, he leads the Librarium in documenting and categorising every piece of knowledge and art the Chapter brings into existence.
Formally attached to the First Company, he wears dark blue and gunmetal terminator armour. Hollix-Varnus is the name of an influential noble Mortikan family, which has provided the Guardians of the Covenant with many recruits.
Aside of all this, Lenko is a formidable battle-psyker, wielding the devastating powers of the warp to great effect.

Ivanh Olmas - Hero of the Lelith Campaign, Chaplain of the Convenio Fides

Olmas is perhaps the most recently forged legend within the Guardians of the Covenant Chapter. He is a Chaplain assigned to the Convenio Fides. Olmas was chosen to lead the expedition against the Lelith as Force Commander. Despite heavy losses, Ivanh Olmas stood his ground and none found him wanting. His selfless actions prevented even heavier losses amongst his Brothers, and due to this he was named the Hero of the Lelith Campaign, Saviour of Choris. He refused any official commendations, for he stated that he was only doing his duty and expected his brothers to do just the same. Nevertheless, his star shines brightly and he is well liked -and feared- by the brothers of his ministration.

A dark and brooding figure, Sajanus Mordecai is amongst the oldest Astartes in service of Chapter. His ornate artificer armour is bedecked with sinister memento mori and numerous texts from holy scriptures. Mordecai is said to embody the spirit of the Chapter and carries the title Keeper of the Faith. Though a fully trained Interrogator-Chaplain, even holding two of the fabled black pearls in his keepsake, Mordecai currently uses his skills to interrogate the many vile Xenos the Guardians of the Covenant encounter, and he does this with terrifying succes.
Aside of his Crozius Arcanum, Mordecai wields Spiritbreaker, a master-crafted power fist and is commonly seen donning the Angel's Pinions, a winged jump pack akin to that of the Chapter Master himself.